If you need proof that President Obama places little value on the Constitution he has sworn to protect, go visit the Metropolitan Detention Center in Los Angeles and ask to take a peek at Nakoula Basseley Nakoula, the man who produced that God-awful film called “The Innocence of Muslims.”
Nakoula, if that is his name – one of the reasons he is in the jug is because he has allegedly employed aliases — has been accused of violating his probation in the wake of a 2010 bank-fraud conviction. Specifically, he had been prohibited from using aliases or gaining access to the Internet without the permission of his probation officer.
How many of you, gentle readers, believe that this is really why Nakoula was arrested and sent to jail without bail? Do you think he would be in jail now if, instead of producing a film slurring the Prophet Muhammad, he had made a cheery travelogue about the Pyramids, or a campaign film urging the re-election of our incumbent President? Would anybody have bothered to check his Internet activities, or his impressive collection of alter egos?
Obama has referred to Nakoula as “a shadowy figure,” strange words coming from someone whose early life is not exactly an open book. He and his administration spent several days spreading the false notion that Nakoula’s blasphemous film was responsible for the storming of our consulate in Benghazi, Libya, and the murder of four Americans, including Ambassador Chris Stephens.
Later, the administration had to acknowledge that the attack was preplanned by terrorists to mark the anniversary of the 9/11 attacks.
But that doesn’t mean Nakoula is off the hook. Leaders of Muslim nations, such as President Morsi of Egypt, have been demanding that the offending film be censored, and that Nakoula be punished. They know full well that this would violate the U.S. Constitution, specifically the First Amendment guarantee of freedom of speech.
Even Obama seems to know that, but if a President tries hard enough he can always find a way around such inconvenient obstacles.
The jailing of Nakoula is Obama’s way, through indirect (and perhaps direct) suasion, to show our Middle Eastern friends – I use the word loosely – that we won’t let a little thing like the First Amendment come between us. In effect, we are saying: “See, we feel your pain, and this miserable little Coptic Christian, Nakoula, is going to get his, one way or another. We are in your pocket, and happy to be there.”
I wonder where the American Civil Liberties Union is in all this. Shouldn’t they be all over this case, debunking the notion that it is about aliases and the Internet, rather than freedom of speech? Perhaps they are too busy looking for more father-daughter dances to shut down, the way they did recently in Rhode Island.